Henry’s Wine Bar on Piccadilly was a great place to gather our strength for the big match. We had taken Shanks’s Pony round the Streets of London. Grace had never been to the big, big city before so we had to see the Eye, a Captain Jack Sparrow look-a-like and some guy stood up a ladder escaping from chains and padlocks. Then we crossed the bridge to get a closer look at the seat of government, and the big clock and we were thinking about going into Westminster Abbey but the queue was too long and they wanted 16 quid a head. Clearly no-one has told them that my Fathers House is not to be made a place of merchandise?

So what was left but to sit outside Henry’s, enjoy a very pleasant steak club sandwich and down the Blue Moon. It was cloudy to look at but tasted like nectar. To be fair it would not have mattered what it tasted like. It just seemed to be the right thing to do on the day the other blue moon was due to rise over Wembley Stadium.

The best team in the land, and the only football team to come from Manchester were about to end the treble hopes of the London Reds. “This city is yours, this city is yours, we’re going home now, this city is yours”, rang round that half of the national stadium that was dressed in sky blue as the defeated red army scurried hastily away. Someone pointed out the fact that they are not good losers but that’s probably because they have not had as much practice at it as us.

I think that victory marks the point in history where we will look back and say the worm turned. For twenty minutes it looked like the trophyless misery might continue for another year but when the Silva Spaniard picked up the game by the scruff of its neck hope began to rise in the hearts of the blue clad tribe. The half ended all square and a different team came out after the tea break. They took their time. I thought they weren’t coming but when they did appear all those good things we expect and hope for were more apparent. Like commitment, drive, passion, precision passing and the vital ingredient from Toure Yaya. The GOAL.

The girls were so excited. “I hate this game” one of them said as she hoped we would desperately hang on to the end, and then the extra 5 minutes that’s customary when Fergie is in attendance, even if he is banned from the touchline and conducting his orchestra electronically from the stands. Unusually for me there were no nerves at all at that point. I could see they were a spent force. Scholes had left in disgrace after trying to emulate former Kung Fu heroes. All they had left to do was spit their dummies out because Super Mario flashed his badge toward the stand long vacated by the now distraught red army. Calm down Mr Anderson. Never mind Rio, go home and tweet, it’ll make you feel better. But get used to this. The Blue Moon is rising.

I was thinking about the mechanics of the Alpha Course preparing for week 5 at our church in Hindley Green. It may seem obvious but I have been missing it for 25 years so maybe it will help you too. Nicky Gumble was truly inspired when he put the course and all its materials together and I am sure that neither he nor the One who inspired him will mind us borrowing a few lessons from it to use in other areas of life. People come out with all kinds of statements about Christianity without really having thought them through. It’s a crutch, its blind faith, there is no real history to support what he is saying.

It is too easy to accept and believe that kind of throw away statement even though they usually come from people who know very little but behave as if they know a lot. It may be a little harder to stop the bus and decide to find out for yourself but the dividends can be enormous. Just the great feeling of liberty at having broken out of the bondage of other peoples opinions makes it worth the effort.

Back to Alpha as the example. Building up the information from reliable sources and not hearsay, line upon line, precept upon precept Nicky gives a foundation not for learning by rote but for true understanding. A decision based on all the facts and not somebody else’s prejudice is a good decision, even if there could have been a better one at least you can say you took responsibility and all are therefore entitled to all the blessings that come out of it.

One of the highlights of a recent convention I attended was meeting a lady called Wendie Pett one morning over breakfast. It was not an arranged meeting, we just happened to be sitting at the same table, but she was easy to get into conversation with. I was immediately taken by her energy. She was brimming over with enthusiasm for the day ahead, which was scheduled to be more hectic than most people could handle in two or three days.

I went to the meeting with the sole goal of getting my financial house in order and building a business. Whilst I had heard the phrase wealth, health and the time to enjoy it I never really imagined it was possible. I even knew it in Spanish where it is a hopeful blessing that friends might speak over each other. “Salud y dinero y tiempo para disrupt ello”: but still it was a hazy dream. I knew dozens of people with the one or another and I even knew some people who were enjoying two out of three but I had never personally met anyone with all three.

Well that conversation over breakfast was not just an introduction to somebody who clearly does have all three but it opened up the door for me, to know, to dare and to believe that I could have it too.

The business I had been playing with for sometime had seemed like a lot of work for a little return. I enjoyed the camaraderie and the healthy products I was promoting certainly were helping me and others around me but I had not really figured out what a real burst of energy and a sustained effort could do. The term residual income sounded good, but enough residual income seemed like an impossible task. Even the people I knew who had retired on pensions after many years of service had still been forced to reduce their lifestyle. I was looking to travel more, see more, do more as soon as time allowed. The big day was fast approaching but the means to enjoy life to the full beyond it was nowhere in sight.

But this was the day of revelation! I remembered what Zigler had said last time I heard him. “To get what you want you have to help enough other people get what they want.” I had thought it was a nice catch phrase, but this was the day I would realise that it’s the total truth.

And how hard would it be to just show a few people they could make their home a safer place, help to make the environment a better place for generations to come and help families to meet their own financial objectives without having to spend any new money.

That started the ball rolling. Now I had the knowledge…but the real test was to see if I had the courage to break out of the JOB box we all seem to live in…Well I dared to do it and the rewards were not long in coming. I am never going to look back. I am thankful for the morning I met Wendy Pett…because at 55 years old I have more energy when I was 35…she made a big difference to my health and even though my business was nothing to do with her she inspired me that morning to go for the other two parts of that glorious trio, health, wealth and the time to enjoy them both. I wish her love, joy, peace and happiness though I dare say she doesn’t even remember me.

“After the 1955 Cup Final I saw Neil sitting despondently on the pavement at the end of the road where I lived in Fallowfield. He lived opposite the end of our road. Neil was too much into his thoughts to talk about City’s 3-1 defeat to Newcastle. Who would have thought then that 14 years later I would be behind the goal where Neil scored the winning goal against Leicester. He was a great player. RIP” – John O’Neill I saw this quote on Facebook, I don’t know John O’Neill and he doesn’t know me but I feel as one with him and with thousands of others like us. I wasn’t even

Gerald Celente has had his finger on the pulse for more than 30 years. His reputation for picking business, consumer, political and economic trends before they happen is well known, his accuracy almost uncanny. I had the pleasure of his company for a short while in Las Vegas last November and I was transfixed. I could have listened to his words of wisdom all day. I was amazed that the man we see on television fearlessly speaking out on all the important issues of personal and public life really is a profoundly humble and gentle man. Boldly opposing abuses by the powers that control our daily lives.

In 2009 Celente predicted turmoil which he described as “Obamageddon”, and he was a popular guest on conservative cable-TV shows such as Fox News Sunday. In April 2009 Celente wrote, “Wall Street controls our financial lives; the media manipulates our minds. These systems cannot be changed from within. There is no alternative. Without a revolution, these institutions will bankrupt the country, keep fighting failed wars, start new ones, and hold us in perpetual intellectual subjugation.” He appeared on the Glenn Beck show and criticized the U.S. stimulus plan of 2009, calling government controlled capitalism “fascism” and saying shopping malls in the U.S. would become “ghost malls.” Celente has said, “smaller communities, the smaller groups, the smaller states, the more self-sustaining communities, will ‘weather the crisis in style’ as big cities and hypertrophic suburbias descend into misery and conflict,” and forecasts “a downsizing of America.”

Well that was pretty lofty stuff but all he wanted to talk about round the dinner table was family, friends and how we can all get the best out of life by being kind to one another and not judging.

I got the impression he loves people but is not too happy with the giant organisations that seek to control them.